From Mitch Ratcliffe:

Beware rebels bearing manifestoes and the sleek taboos of trendsetters. Eat the dead, if their bodies aren't too putrid, to learn from the lessons coursing through their veins. Start no religions except those you are willing to mock mercilessly. Trust experience without regard to the grammars available from local professional societies. Live and let live, else you will find yourself roasting on the spit of your own dogma. Create to be free, consume to die to yourself.

I was at Joe's Pub on Friday night of the Howl! Festival. Guitar heroes of the Lower East Side. Lenny Kaye sang this John Hiatt song.

To make the heart ache just a little more.

John Hiatt - What do we do now?

gimme back my steel,
gimme back my nerve
gimme back my youth
for the dead man's curve
for that icy feel when
you start to swerve
give us back the love
we don't deserve

cause we rode it long,
we drove it hard
and we wrecked it
in our own backyard

what do we do now
what do we do now
what do we do now
what do we do now

Yes, my kids, but today and always, my wife, who is profiled in the New York Times this morning. Good account of her organization, The Lower Eastside Girls Club, and the Chiapas connection.

And the writer, Lynda Richardson, got everything right except the location of the cat tattoo with my name - it's on her shoulder. (I've got a Maya jaguar head with her name on mine.)

You deserve it, Lyn!

Sugar, Spice and Everything Equal, Please